Hello all,
This is the last post on our blog. We have moved to https://kevint.itch.io/two-button-army. Latest updates can be found there! Thanks for sticking with us, and we hope for you to continue on our journey with us over at itch.io!
Best,
Kevin Toney - Technical Designer
Monday, June 13, 2016
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Tabitha Hein - Artist - Final Update
Hey everyone!
Our Game Modification class has officially come to an end, so this is the final post on the updates for the work done in this class.
When we started, the art was simple boxes fighting each other. My concept for the art was a huge risk to take because of the scope of it, but I was determined to prove that I can handle it. Thus began the massive amount of work to get TBA fully arted in the style that we were aiming for.
I started with rough sketched out animations of the walk, attack and parry. As the designing and programing moved along, there was new mechanics added to the mix, meaning more animations to make. It was tough to get it all sketched out, there was a lot of reiterations of the animations as well as the background and gates that get destroyed.
When we reached Alpha, that was were the coloring began. With the absence of black outlines to give the art a unique look, TBA began to come to life. It was an exciting feeling to see how it all came together, and how much I worked on the art to get it to be where it is today. Even though it is the end of Game Mod, I plan to continue working on the game, with the next step of adding more animations to the background to bring the environment to life more.
TBA is one of the most polished games I have made and I would not have been able to achieve this without the amazing group members that worked just as hard on all the other aspects of the game!! Now it is time to put our game to the test with festival submissions, I am nervous but also very excited to see how the future will be for Two Button Army!
Cheers!
Tabby Hein
Our Game Modification class has officially come to an end, so this is the final post on the updates for the work done in this class.
When we started, the art was simple boxes fighting each other. My concept for the art was a huge risk to take because of the scope of it, but I was determined to prove that I can handle it. Thus began the massive amount of work to get TBA fully arted in the style that we were aiming for.
I started with rough sketched out animations of the walk, attack and parry. As the designing and programing moved along, there was new mechanics added to the mix, meaning more animations to make. It was tough to get it all sketched out, there was a lot of reiterations of the animations as well as the background and gates that get destroyed.
When we reached Alpha, that was were the coloring began. With the absence of black outlines to give the art a unique look, TBA began to come to life. It was an exciting feeling to see how it all came together, and how much I worked on the art to get it to be where it is today. Even though it is the end of Game Mod, I plan to continue working on the game, with the next step of adding more animations to the background to bring the environment to life more.
TBA is one of the most polished games I have made and I would not have been able to achieve this without the amazing group members that worked just as hard on all the other aspects of the game!! Now it is time to put our game to the test with festival submissions, I am nervous but also very excited to see how the future will be for Two Button Army!
Cheers!
Tabby Hein
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Kevin Mester - Designer - Final Update
With this being our final posts for the class , I'm going to go over my contribution to Two Button Army up to this point.
The majority of my time spent on TBA was spent working on balancing our mechanics and making sure everything felt awesome to play. This included syncing actions to their animations and finding a sweet spot where no one action feels dominant over all of them. I feel right now were are in a great place in regards to our balance. Players who utilize each ability will have an advantage over someone who only spams one attack which is what we want.
Besides balancing I also worked on the games UI elements by building the frameworks for elements like the Title screen, tutorials, Win messages. Of these tutorials are the ones I spent the most time on and have gone through the most iterations, trying to find the best was to convey the mechanics of the game and still letting the player get better through playing.
Towards the end of the quarter, I also started working on our sound FX, Having access to the school recording booth, I would reserve times for out team to go in and record our own sounds. This was something we wanted because it gave us ownership over every aspect of our game, and we could get the sounds we wanted faster than searching online.
This project has been a great opportunity for me to work on. Not only do we have a game that we are submitting to festivals and allowing people to download and play on their own, but I have also been able learn new skills as a result of it in fields other than just design. I look forward to each festival submission and to see how we can make TBA even better!
The majority of my time spent on TBA was spent working on balancing our mechanics and making sure everything felt awesome to play. This included syncing actions to their animations and finding a sweet spot where no one action feels dominant over all of them. I feel right now were are in a great place in regards to our balance. Players who utilize each ability will have an advantage over someone who only spams one attack which is what we want.
Besides balancing I also worked on the games UI elements by building the frameworks for elements like the Title screen, tutorials, Win messages. Of these tutorials are the ones I spent the most time on and have gone through the most iterations, trying to find the best was to convey the mechanics of the game and still letting the player get better through playing.
Towards the end of the quarter, I also started working on our sound FX, Having access to the school recording booth, I would reserve times for out team to go in and record our own sounds. This was something we wanted because it gave us ownership over every aspect of our game, and we could get the sounds we wanted faster than searching online.
This project has been a great opportunity for me to work on. Not only do we have a game that we are submitting to festivals and allowing people to download and play on their own, but I have also been able learn new skills as a result of it in fields other than just design. I look forward to each festival submission and to see how we can make TBA even better!
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Aaron Huang - TBA Beta Update
Hey guys,
Our team is proud to announce that Two Button Army is officially in its beta!
As Game Mod draws to a close, it is time to look and back and see what we have accomplished.
From the beginning of the project, I took the job of producer on the team. Most of my early contributions to the project comes in terms of making weekly burndown chart, checklist, scope document, and facilitating everyone to make sure we get our job done.
Producer certainly has a huge influence on the team, but also at this time there isn't much to do for designers, especially since we have two on board.
However, as the game starts to take shape, designers become in demand. Around week 5 I started to focus on designing and balancing.
Here's a brief list of the designing stuff I've done:
Our team is proud to announce that Two Button Army is officially in its beta!
As Game Mod draws to a close, it is time to look and back and see what we have accomplished.
From the beginning of the project, I took the job of producer on the team. Most of my early contributions to the project comes in terms of making weekly burndown chart, checklist, scope document, and facilitating everyone to make sure we get our job done.
Producer certainly has a huge influence on the team, but also at this time there isn't much to do for designers, especially since we have two on board.
However, as the game starts to take shape, designers become in demand. Around week 5 I started to focus on designing and balancing.
Here's a brief list of the designing stuff I've done:
- Tweaking every single public variable, sometimes even private variables within the code, to achieve optimal gameplay. And not just randomly tweaking for the heck of it, every variable is experimented with to the third digit.
- Coming up with new gameplay ideas (and implementing it in some case) to achieve better overall experience. For example, I created the advancing quick attack after a successful parry.
- Playtesting! I have played so many rounds of TBA against my friends, strangers, team members alike in order to collect feedback
Overall, this has been a wonderful experience and we truly have an awesome game to show. I hope we continue to develop and better this game even after Game mod!
Mikhail Strubler - Programmer - Final Update
So this is my final post on the TBA blog, but the game doesn't stop here!
As Toney mentioned, we'll be submitting the game to a few more festivals and continuing to polish the game in the coming weeks.
As for my part, here's what I contributed to Two Button Army:
As Toney mentioned, we'll be submitting the game to a few more festivals and continuing to polish the game in the coming weeks.
As for my part, here's what I contributed to Two Button Army:
- Coding and implementation of game mechanics including but not limited to parry, heavy attack, game flow, dancing and more
- Input on virtually all major design decisions.
- Optimization of code, allowing the game to run more smooth and allow for more creative freedom for the designers.
- Art, animation, sound, and UI implementation
- Creation of some Foley sound effects
As we say goodbye to Game Mod Workshop we say hello to the possibilities open to us by these coming festivals. Wether we get to see Two Button Army adored by gamers at multiple festivals or not, I'm glad to be along for the ride. Here's to the continued success of Two Button Army and my amazing teammates in the Little Paper Soldiers.
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
KToney - Technical Designer - Final Update
Hello Everyone!
As Game Mod Workshop comes to a close, this will be my final update on this blog, before we move Two Button Army to a new website.
Two Button Army has exceeded my expectations, and we recently have started submitting it to festivals. My team is composed of the some of the best people I have ever worked with, and their drive and commitment is what made TBA the game it is today.
I was involved with most aspects of TBA's development, but I served first and foremost as a Technical Designer. Over the last 10 weeks, my duties included:
- Initial Prototype creation alongside Will Meyers
- Game Design (Attack, Parry, Heavy Attack, Game Flow, Spawning)
- Game Mechanic Implementation alongside our programmer (WIZARD) Mikhail.
- Code Optimization with Mikhail and Will Meyers
- Aided with music and sound direction with our composer Aaron Stearns and sound designers Kevin Mester and Michal Dorband.
- Art and Animation implementations
- Game Balance
- Playtests
In addition, I handled all Festival Submissions. I also created all videos and screenshots for the game.
As you can guess, I had my nose pretty much everywhere it could be during the development process. But, it wasn't just me! Most team members were very cross disciplinary, and we all gave feedback to each other and assisted with each other's duties. On small game dev teams, developers must wear many hats.
While the class is ending, TBA's development is not over. We plan on submitting our game to at least FIVE MORE FESTIVALS. We worked our tails off these past ten weeks, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for our Little Paper Soldiers.
Sense of Wonder Night Submission!
We have moved to a new site! Latest build and promo materials can be found here (https://kevint.itch.io/two-button-army)
Imagine controlling an entire army with two buttons. Two Button Army takes a large scale conflict between two forces and condenses it into an arcade-like competitive battle that is simple to learn, yet difficult to master. Two Button Army’s gameplay mechanics provide a unique experience, where players have to keep track of combat across the entire battlefield, since fighting does not exclusively take place at the frontline. Players must adapt to enemy movement, and adjust their playstyle to fit new situations. By taking proven combat mechanics and fusing them with our vision of controlling an army acting in unison, we believe that we have created a combat system that has not been explored in gaming.
PC BUILD: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4K1aP-PgCHPOFpQV19kbnU1WXM
Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIznczvb2Bc&feature=youtu.be
SCREENS
Imagine controlling an entire army with two buttons. Two Button Army takes a large scale conflict between two forces and condenses it into an arcade-like competitive battle that is simple to learn, yet difficult to master. Two Button Army’s gameplay mechanics provide a unique experience, where players have to keep track of combat across the entire battlefield, since fighting does not exclusively take place at the frontline. Players must adapt to enemy movement, and adjust their playstyle to fit new situations. By taking proven combat mechanics and fusing them with our vision of controlling an army acting in unison, we believe that we have created a combat system that has not been explored in gaming.
PC BUILD: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4K1aP-PgCHPOFpQV19kbnU1WXM
Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIznczvb2Bc&feature=youtu.be
SCREENS
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)